Author: sabinasimkova

I belong here

The last few weeks have been extremely busy for me. Not only I spent hours in meetings about social media strategy but I also spent hours creating content and interacting with the audience especially on Instagram.  Despite the workload, I’ve been falling in love with my internship and the place. The people are lovely, space is accommodating and it kinda feels like I belong there.

The view of Bratislava from the 20th floor of Twin City Tower

Even though I still do not see myself working in a co-work space longterm, I have to admit there is something amazing about it. During the summer, we have events every Wednesday – it started with brunch and last week we had a movie quiz. It gives me the opportunity to get to know my colleagues as well as people from other organizations. In between all these events, we managed to celebrate a colleague’s daughter birth. Somehow, I am already part of the team, despite being there only for a little over a month.

One of our meeting and chill out rooms

During my time here I learned that to some extent I prefer learning from experience, trial-and-error, rather than lecture halls. Through working by myself on projects, I had the time to further research details that interested me, for example, the best use of Instagram features for campaigns, how to track engagement more effectively, and how to analyze Instagram statistics. The things I did not understand, my mentor very kindly explained or made a note to get back to it during one of our meetings. Having an internship is definitely teaching me numerous practical skills which  I would not be able to gain in an academic environment.

Coloring book in the restroom

I am learning to be more independent in a professional setting as well as more communicative. The other week, the director of the NGO took me with him for a business meeting with one of the partners. My role was to shadow, yet I still had the chance to communicate with the partner, introduce myself and give them insight into social media communication. I can see myself taking advantage of these skills once I am attending job interviews or communicating with professors. As somebody who tends to be shy and quiet, I appreciate a lot that my boss is taking the time to help me step out of my comfort zone.

Lastly, I am incredibly proud to say that the engagement on the Instagram skyrocketed ever since I’ve started to post regularly on stories and feed. Our newest campaign (displayed above) has the highest engagement of all posts so far. As of right now, I am preparing content for the next couple of weeks in order to ease the process and make it understandable for all team members – whether they work for communications or not.

 

Sabina Simkova ’22

Co-working buzz

I knew I wanted to spend summer back home, in Slovakia, so when I got the chance to intern for an NGO I was over the moon. My official position is ‘marketing intern’ for Slovak National Office of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. So far I have been working on smaller tasks that had to be done before the end of the school year in Slovakia (last day of June). It meant a lot of mailing had to be done – certificates, posters, letters of recognition, as well as a couple of Instagram and Facebook posts about events for teachers, birthdays of the Duke of Edinburgh and so on.

Twin City – business is where my internship located
Morning view of the terrace

The National office is located in the center of Bratislava in a co-working space. It means we are surrounded by several startups, some entrepreneurs and couple remote offices of corporations. It has many perks such as meeting interesting people, having almost mandatory “pet someone’s dog” break, free coffee and different space to work at (open space desks, so-called ‘aquariums’ for one or two people, private desks, couches, terrace, kitchen bar, etc.). The downside of co-working space is the never-ending buzz. People talk and call loudly, dogs are barking, sometimes there are babies crying, the coffee machine is also not the quietest. So it took some time to find my way around it, get comfortable and find places where I can focus the most. Now I know I prefer coming to work before most of the people, around 8am, and have a head start on my tasks for the day. I schedule meetings for the afternoon as the morning time for my deep work.

1/4 of the mailing I had done
My usual view – official Instagram, my all-access card, papers with notes and ideas and my colleagues
Pheobie – the office dog

My first two weeks, apart from smaller projects, were filled with constant meetings with other team members. The National Office has 14 members and my mentor told me to schedule meeting with every single one, to get to know them and their responsibilities. It gave me the space to explore different ‘departments’ and see whether there is something else that I would like to do.  My mentors and the director of the NGO gave me the freedom to learn not just about marketing but other areas such as partnership and sponsorship. I highly appreciate this mentality, especially in such a small institution. All the departments are interconnected and in order to do one thing correctly, I have to understand all perspectives.

https://www.instagram.com/p/By-PeImHu8o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Right now, I have some sort of routine. I started working on a long-term project, campaign for Instagram and Facebook. On Tuesday, 25th June, I have a meeting with my mentor about the strategy which I am preparing. We will discuss what we post and when, how it is going to look like, what our goals are, who our main audience is, etc. Until then, I am finishing a few smaller things from the previous week.  It is a pilot year of Ambassador program and I am in charge of any communication and marketing related to it (with the help and consultation from my mentor).

The experience so far directly relates to and contributes to the fulfillment of my goals, which are:

  1. Improving written communication, especially in Slovak language (articles, emails, PR posts)
  2. Developing my creative skills in Canva, photoshop and similar portals (by creating posters, infographics, etc.)
  3. Learning more about Social Media marketing (metrics, how to measure goals)
Coffee shop near our office where I spend my lunch break (me in the background. I found the picture on the story of the place).
Another perk of co-working: There is always food! Free food should I mention.

Throughout the first month, I plan to add goals that I would like to achieve by working with colleagues from a different department. This week I am attending the Executive Board Meeting and next week, I might be shadowing the director in a business meeting. I am excited to be exposed to new experience and meet inspiring people from business, education and the NGO sector.

 

 

Sabina Simkova ’22